How much would a shop charge to do a full body life cast?

TuanvuLe

I was thinking of having a shop do a full body life cast for me so I could have a mold to make master body parts for practicing ultimately make an entire corpse or something similiar to showcase my different skills.

I'm not confident in doing it myself given the cost of materials and model time.  I would practice life casting with said corpse.  I wanted to find out if it's cost effective to have it professionally done.

I'm open to silicone or alginate print layers, silicone prefered just to have the mold in my library.

Thanks,
Tuan

Matt Winston

Hi Tuan,

I passed along your question to our instructor and veteran makeup effects supervisor, Shannon Shea. Here's what he had to say about body molding and casting pricing in general:

"Price will always depend on what the final product is - The body/head molds or casts out of the molds. Mold prices depend on materials. Simple alginate/plaster bandage molds cost significantly less than silicone molds. Mold price would be somewhere between $4,500 and $10,000 (That price would take into account materials and 4 people helping to do it.) It will be cheaper if there is less help, but then you sacrifice quality and the subject has to endure a longer molding time. Casts from the molds also range. A Hydrocal cast from an alginate head mold would run about $150 (materials and labor). A rigid polyfoam body cast from a plaster bandage mold would cost somewhere around $2,500 to $4,000 depending on how many people are casting it. There is a lot of prep work to do and this does not include a welded/jointed metal armature which would run another $2,000 or so."